http://www.gothtober.com/With just a few days to go, I want to remind folks to visit the Gothtober Halloween countdown site during the next month. It's always fun and interesting. (You can also view last year's Calendar).

some Halloween sites of note

There are probably hundreds of thousands of sites devoted to Halloween. Here are a few I’ve found useful at one time or another. I’ve stayed away from most of the commercial sites dealing with costumes and special effects. One can find them easily enough. Someday I may post some of my faves for house decorating – but not this season. I’ve tried to concentrate on places that might be of use to folks who aren’t experts, and have divided these listings into several broad categories. If you’re aware of any pro or home haunts in the DC region (that have a web site) that aren’t listed here, please let me know, I’d be obliged.

First of all, here are some sites of general interest, with lots of links, some history of the holiday, sound effects, recipes, costumes, pictures, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcAn3z7D1PcAlways thought this was one of the best songs from '76. I always thought the Wilson sisters should've done better and stayed away from mainstream formulas that engulfed them in the 80's. Oh well, that first album was wonderful...

Happy Pig's Face Day!

"Pig's Face Day is celebrated every other year in the village of Avening in the Cotswolds. A story of unrequited love, it goes back over 900 years when Matilda fell in love with an Englishman, Brittic, who was on a mission to Flanders. He did not reciprocate. She later married William the Conqueror and when she joined her victorious husband in England, almost her first act was to have Brittic, who lived at Avening Court, thrown into gaol, where he died. Overcome with remorse, Matilda commissioned a church to be built at Avening which was completed in 1080 and in celebration, she feasted the builders with boar's head - colloquially Pig's Face."

I've seen at least one weak performance by Southside, but I've also seen some great ones. One of the best White R&B singers and bands - ever. When he's cooking, Southside can take a song and add a depth of emotion to it that is almost painful. Linda and I caught the Jukes at Merriweather about twenty years ago and they opened with the old Supremes hit of Stop! In The Name of Love. It was unbelievable - one of the most energetic and joyful performances I've ever seen - a near religious experience. And the Jukes are one of those bands that can play for hours and get better and better. You never leave a Southside concert early.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I swear this looks like a Glen Baxter model: "Rupert lectured for hours, but was unable to convince the wooden fish to vote Tory" or "Even the wearing of his best ascot couldn't get Lance noticed by the carved haddock".

getting old

Linda and I walked into a local Burke & Herbert Bank to do some business, (I demanded tens and twenties and told 'em not to sound the alarm for at least 5 minutes...); and she alerted me to a long-lost sound - the clickey clack of someone actually TYPING ON A TYPEWRITER!!! I watched in amazement as an actual human being pounded away on one of the old contraptions - and it sounded great! The old days came flooding back. I felt like Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Past - I was a child again! I wanted to pelt someone with a snowball, go sledding, watch a TV show in black & white, listen to a 45, play murder ball, order a Chicken Delight and drink Tyrolia. It was amazing.

Known mostly for her work with the Go Go's, Wieldin is a wonderful songwriter and recording artist. Her tunes can be beautiful, sensitive, cute, and fun. Another in a long line of underappreciated performers.

So cool. Theme to the American release of Patrick McGoohan's Secret Agent TV series. My personal theme song in the mid Sixties, always running in my head - cause the odds were I wouldn't live to see tomorrow...

I wish they had the ones from Sears in the 60's. For those of you too young - there was a real sense of ritual and excitement to these things, much like the childhood memories evoked in Sheppard's Christmas Story. They'd be dropped off on your front doorstep around the second or third week of October. As far as we were concerned, that was the official start to the Christmas greed-fest. Within 72 hours the whole catalog would be memorized, underlined, bookmarked, and cross referenced. A merciless 24-hour-a-day lobbying effort would be directed at the parents, backed by vague threats and allusions to blackmail and extortion, only ending on Christmas morning with the inevitable sack of coal and stack of switches....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtQpZysa7UA (followed by You Didn't have To Be So Nice) Essential. A great version from the legendary TNT show. John and his autoharp, Zally clowning around. One of my all-time favorite songs and bands. To be successful, R&R and R&B had to capture more than the usual boy/girl thing. They had to encompass the whole of our lives, successes and failures, danger and daring, and also a certain innocence and longing. The Spoonful provided that last part. I can only echo some old liner notes from one of their albums, listening to these old tunes and when they were written and wonder how the hell we got to where we are today.

I know that 70's soft rock is waaay out of fashion, but I've always enjoyed America and this is probably my fave tune by 'em. There are times of simplicity in everyone's life, generally early on; when both the successes and the failures, the good times and the bad are very instinctual and basic. These guys' songs remind me a little of that.

Happy Holy Nut Day!

This old and forgotten holiday, (which I am hereby resurrecting) is sometimes combined with another - Devil's Nutting Day; but the two traditions are slightly different. Today, any Hazelnuts eaten will posses "magical powers" . Good luck!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-SVPJM4L4In a decade literally crammed to the rafters with interesting songs, this was one of the most. Fascinating and mysterious lyrics, a beautiful combination of baroque pop/country goth/paisley pop pyschelia. One of those tunes that gets better around the fourth or fifth drink. Hazelwood was a weird little genius and is sorely missed.

Another good garage band, featuring Moulty on drums (who had a hook for a left hand which he used to drum with - how cool is that!?!). Created one of the first odes to guys with long hair - Are You A Boy, Or Are You A Girl? Fun stuff!

Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem on the night of Sept 13-14th in 1814. I confess that I've never liked it. No one can sing it, no one knows all the words, it's too slow, the tune is stolen from the Brits, etc. I think Yankee Doodle would have been a good choice, or better yet, this little gem. Cheers!

Sometimes Mellencamp's rural Midwest schtick gets a little too much for me, (I was born in a LARGE town...). But I do enjoy quite a few of his tunes, and this is my favorite. Good instrumentation and a weariness in the lyrics I can identify with more and more.

Help!

Something for Beatles fans... Apple Corps Ltd. has just announced that EMI will be releasing Help! on DVD as a 2-disc set on 10/30. The film has been restored and will feature a newly-created Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Extras will include the 30-minute The Beatles in Help! documentary, a missing scene featuring Wendy Richard, the The Restoration of Help! and Memories of Help! featurettes, 3 trailers for the film and 1965 U.S. radio spots for the film hidden as Easter eggs in the menus. This 2-disc set will be released in TWO different versions - a standard Digipack version and a special deluxe boxed set. From the press release, the deluxe box will contain: "a reproduction of Richard Lester's original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie.

Brilliant, Beautiful, Essential. I still remember the first time I heard that debut album - walking into the old Kemp Mill Records off of Braddock Road. The thing had just been released and the clerk put it on their sound system. Ten seconds into their cover of Stop Your Sobbing and I was hooked. Great sound.

Film Wars!!!

My friend Vanessa just wrote me the following: "There's a new movie coming out in Russia called Mongol. Part of the promotional campaign is a contest to "win a DNA test to see if you are a descendant of Chingiz Khan." Supposedly 1 out of 200 people is a descendant. Where else could you win a medical procedure by seeing a movie?"

I love William Castle-style film promotions! And I can't believe we'd sit back and let the Russkies win this "Promotions War". I suggest we immediately up the ante by offering:1. Free VD shots for anyone viweing the Happy Hooker, etc.2. Glow-in-the-dark crucifixes for attendees of vampire flicks. Roast garlic could be served on the popcorn.3. Cans of pea soup for Exorcist fans.4. Outdoor thermometers to be handed out at all showings of An Inconvenient Truth.5. Free flea collars for all patrons of werewolf movies. 6. Coupons for Fava Beans at showings of Silence of the Lambs.7. Pet chameleons handed out during Godzilla movies.8. Free gerbils for anyone attending a Richard Gere film.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Ah, summer of '78... Very cool sound. Reminiscent of my boy Al Stewart. I know I am alone in this opinion, but I believe this song is based on a rather obscure Discordian sci-fi story called the Clam of Catastrophe by Arthur Cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVtbFXm2E6QAll the soap opera drama and glam got in the way of the fact that this was one of the better folk rock groups. Sonny could combine a pseudo Phil Spector sound and commercialism with Dylanesque pretensions and come up with some pretty neat Top 40 tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj9Rs56u8YYA nice start-of-school song! In its day, the unofficial anthem of William & Mary. It's always neat hearing this song sober, very different from the days when it was released... To all of you about to start classes, I wish you better luck than I ever had. As for me, time for some Virginia Gentleman...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmjFk7i4hygYes, yes, I know, I know. Throughout the mid and late 70's this was overplayed and he was overexposed. But I still think this was a very pretty love song and it still reminds me of more innocent and hope-filled days. Another good end-of-summer song.

A celebration of one of my fave films in one of my all-time favorite spots on Earth. I've been in and around Ridgway dozens of time over the course of my life, and been stopping in and eating at the True Grit Cafe for at least twenty years now. As many of you old-timers know, I consider that whole region a second home. Just beautiful....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jGqx3sqq-4They never got much respect, but I always considered The Stranglers to be one of the better and more interesting bands to come out of late 70's Britain. A mix of Doors-like danger and intelligence.

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Greetings!
This site will be devoted to all the funny, weird, disturbing, and unusual stuff I find or am sent. This will include pictures, games, comics, cartoons, articles, jokes, and anomalies. Enjoy!